Police are standing by to provide security at tonight's match between Brazil and North Korea at Ellis Park after workers from the Stallion Security Consortium at the Johannesburg venue signalled their intention to join the strike over pay.

Employees of the company have already withdrawn their labour from two other venues that Stallion were contracted to provide security for - the Green Point Stadium in Cape Town and the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban and at both venues police personnel were drafted in to cover.

"We are preparing a plan B to provide security for tonight's match if security workers decide to strike. At the moment they are saying they intend to strike but talks are continuing," Leon Engelbrecht, a spokesman for the Joint Operations Centre, told Press Association Sport.

Rich Mkhondo, a spokesman for the tournament's local organising committee, said earlier today: "I wish to reiterate that this is an employer-employee dispute over wages and when the guards left their posts the police were on hand to take over the security at those stadiums.

"All stadiums are being monitored on an individual basis and the risk of strikes is being assessed at each of the stadiums."

A company called Fidelity are responsible for the stadiums at Polokwane, Nelspruit, Pretoria, Bloemfontein and Rustenburg. A spokeswoman for Fidelity refused to comment on industrial relations between the company and its employees when contacted today, while no one was available for comment from Stallion, who are also contracted to provide security at the other Johannesburg venue, Soccer City.

Mkhondo was adamant though that even if there were strikes across the board, the police would be on hand to ensure stadium security throughout the tournament.

"Any strike action is the legitimate right of the participant and we are not going to get involved. The games will be held on time and they will end on July 11, 2010," he added.

FIFA said they would not intervene in the matter because it was an employer-employee dispute.